User blog:Mutant Peacock/Treehouse of Horror XXVIII or THOH 28, my opinion on the event.
This is my first blog post so there may be some spelling and grammar mistakes on it but I hope that it is at least readable. I wanted to express how I felt about this event since it has ended. On this post, I will outline what EA did good (pros), what they did bad (cons), how it could of been improved. Feel free to comment what you think of this event below. The good things about this event (Pros) * A good opportunity to get old items from previous THOH events and other updates. ** Can also get items at a discount/rebate, through the THOH mystery boxes and bundles. * 10 new freemium characters and 5 or 6 (including Treestache) new premium characters are available through the event. * 4 new freemium buildings and 9 new premium buildings are available with the event. * 2 new freemium outfits/costumes and 2 new premium outfits/costumes available through the event. * 1 new façade is available through the event. * Like the Homerpalooza 2017 Event, bonus donut rounds are available from completing the Act 1, 2 and 3 questlines instead of after the final prize of each act. * Crafting for the event included new items and old items from last year's THOH update (can be considered a con), to be exact 21 items in crafting with 14 returning from last year's event and 7 new for this event. * Crafting currency increases with each act with 2 in Act 1, 4 in Act 2 and 8 in Act 3 (so it would be easier to get to the final crafting prize Werewolf Flanders or the Magic Academy Courtyard. * Only have to log in for a minute or so every 4 hours to clear Mystical Pests, summon/enchant/capture beasts, fighting Lord Montymort with the characters and beasts. (not including crafting, visiting friends, or doing anything else in the game. * Don't need to manually look for Mystical Pests around Springfield but can use the Magic Tower to clear them every 4 hours. * Magic Academy gives all Youngsters an 8 hour task to animate the building. Bonus Pro: Sherri and Terri now have a solo 8 hour task since original 8 hour task requires Bart. * Neighbour interactions are short with only tapping the Mystical Pests and only 15 neighbours earn currency with the rest just earning cash, xp and friend points (unless on FP Level 20). * The beasts can earn decorations when getting released that can decorate various places including the beasts' hubs (can also be considered a con). The bad things about this event (Cons) * Majority of crafting items are decorations (excluding Werewolf Flanders) and 2/3 (14) of them are returning from last year's THOH update while the other 1/3 (7) is new. ** Some returning items are unique which are the Medieval Rich House, Bell Tower, Wolf Rock, Dark Carriage, Forest Cave and Werewolf Flanders so they can't be crafted if they were unlocked from the previous year and can't get another one such as a second Medieval Rich House. * Neighbour interactions do not help the other neighbour with the event and have been reduced to 45 actions instead of 90 like previous major events before Homerpalooza. * Only 1 new building is offered on the prize track for all 3 acts, the Ye Olde Magick Shoppe, with the rest being characters, decorations, free land tokens and crafting currency (Not counting the 3 buildings unlocked through the event's questline). ** The rest of the new buildings were premium items. * Majority of prize track prizes are decorations (9 in total). * Decorations unlocked from the beasts can get repetitive and become clutter eventually, for example, having 50 Chaise Lounges in Springfield or inventory. ** The decorations also cannot be sold with the exception of Treestache's items being sellable. * No spooky rivers with this event like in previous THOH updates. * Premium characters and costumes that are bought to fight beasts (Angelica Button, The Great Raymondo, Sorcerer Frink etc.) become useless when all available beasts have been captured and enchanted during Act 1 + 2 with Act 3 allowing them to fight Lord Montymort. * Prize track currency from Mystical Pests remained the same amount for each act so 2 in Act 1, 2 in Act 2 and 2 in Act 3. * Battling Lord Montymort can be difficult for freemium players because it takes the entire act just to defeat him 3 times including sending characters and beasts to fight him. * Bonus donut rounds after completing the questline is hard to get in the event with 1000 Wands in Act 1, 5000 Fairy Dust in Act 2 and 15000 Toad Princes in Act 3. * No episode tie-in to this year's Treehouse of Horror XXVIII episode. * A very expensive Gil Deal was offered, the Burns Dragon and his treasure for 199 donuts while Treestache and Wiggops are offered for 60 donuts each. How it could of been improved Crafting * Crafting could have offered a new unique building, character or costume as the final prize instead of a really expensive decoration like the Magic Academy Courtyard or the Bling Cup from the Homerpalooza 2017 Event. It could also offer more unique new items with at least 25% items being unique while 75% are multiples available. * Crafting could of offered new prizes for each act similar to the Superheroes 2016 Event crafting system but keep the Act 1 crafting items when Act 2 hits, for example, the entire event there are 18 levels of crafting available starting with 6 levels in Act 1 then adding another 6 levels in Act 2 equalling 12 levels in Act 2 and finally adding the last 6 levels in Act 3 equalling 18 levels in Act 3. Also crafting level 6 in Act 1 could have a new and unique decoration for the final Act 1 crafting prize (if not crafted in Act 1 it still can be crafted in Act 2 + 3), crafting level 12 in Act 2 could have a new and unique building and crafting level 18 in Act 3 could have a new character or costume. Personal Prizes * Personal Prizes could have offered at least 5 more buildings in the whole event (2 buildings per act) instead of having the majority of prizes being decorations. With the 7 prizes per act in the event, the 3rd and 5th prizes could be the buildings while the 4th and 6th are currency, 1st is a decoration and 7th is a character or costume. New Job length from buildings * The job length from the new buildings offered (with the exception of buildings that come with a character including the Magic Academy Library and The Great Raymondo's Home) could be changed to a length of time that the character does not have already or something different to the 5 main job lengths (60m, 4h, 8h, 12 + 24h), for example, Snake's 4 hour task at the Black Magic Hall could be changed to 3 or 6 hours and Comic Book Guy's 4 hour tasks at the Charmer's Market and Elf Hotel could be 16 or 20 hours. Final thoughts Overall, this year's Treehouse of Horror Event was not one of the best event's of the year but compared to previous THOH events that I played including 2014, 2015 + 2016 events. With a rank from worst to best it would be 2015, 2014, 2017 (this years'), and 2016 is the best one, however, the 2012 and 2013 events' were good events from other players experience. The main things I did not like about the event was the crafting with the majority of items being repeats from last year, the increasing number of decorations from releasing beasts, the length of the event being 6 weeks while 5 would of been more preferable, Lord Montymort battles in Act 3 and the limited interactions with neighbours. The main things I did like about the event were the characters offered as prizes and premium purchases including Count Dracula, Greystash, Slithers and Unicorn Wizard, Angelica Button, Evil Shopkeeper and The Great Raymondo, the buildings and decorations can be used to make fun designs and areas, getting items from previous events some at reasonable prices and the short log in time for the busy weekdays. This is still a work in progress so I will update it more later or when I have more time. In the meantime, feel free to comment what you think of this event below with what you like and/or don't like about it. :) Category:Blog posts